Medieval Defenders Ps Vita

[Nico Sadiq]

Aristotles works had, of course, been made available toscholars via translation from Greek and Arabic sources during themedieval period (Twelfth through Fourteenth centuries), and afamiliarity with Aristotle's logic and natural philosophy becamea requirement for an Arts degree at medieval universities and thus anintegral part of the training of those who wished to pursue advancedstudies in medicine, theology or canon or civil law. But the number ofphilosophers or theologians who could access the Aristoteliancorpus in the original Greek was quite small, and there wasan extensive body of works in Greek devoted to commentaries andcriticisms of the Stagirite's positions that would not becomeavailable to a majority of readers until the Renaissance providedaccessible translations. It is not surprising that Patrizi devotedmuch of his time and effort to these endeavors, and his doing so wouldhave a profound effect on the way in which he and many of hiscontemporaries and successors would come to interpret the Peripateticsystem.

In rejecting the Peripatetic conceptions so dominant in philosophyand science, Patrizi was clearly motivated not only by his desire toreplace what he took to be incorrect views contained in theAristotelian works but by his wide reading and critical study of manyof the major sources associated with the Platonic tradition. Inaddition to the translations of and commentaries on the Platonicdialogues and the works of Plotinus published by Marsilio Ficino,Patrizi's knowledge of Greek gave him access to a body ofwritings from other relevant authors. Besides translating JohnPhiloponus' commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics,Proclus' Elements of Theology and PhysicalElements, he was well versed in the works of thinkers such asAntiochus of Ascalon, Cicero, Ammonius Saccas, Boethius and Augustine,who actively sought to incorporate Platonic teachings as an essentialpart of their own views, as well as Platonically-influencedcontemporaries such as Francesco Verino il Secondo and JacopoMazzoni. He argued actively for the replacement ofAristotle's works as the model for philosophical and scientificeducation at the University level, and his holding chairs in Platonicphilosophy at both Ferrara and Rome indicates his success in bringinghis ideal to fruition.

Patrizi's concern with early sources was not strictlyscholarly or historical, as can readily be seen by examining his worksand the ways in which those texts were employed. An independentthinker, he was willing to consider as wide a range of views aspossible on subjects of interest to him, whether they were scientific,philosophical, historical, or dealt with concrete problems inengineering or hydrology. And he made use of them in his own way,unwilling to adhere unquestioningly to the theories and practices ofcontemporaries who dealt with the same works in different ways. To cite a concrete example, Patrizi accepted the authenticity of thebody of works attributed to the pseudo-Egyptian sage Hermes orMercurius Trismegistus, as had Marsilio Ficino before him and many ofhis own contemporaries, such as Giordano Bruno (Yates 1964). Heprinted some Hermetic works and the Chaldaean Oraclesattributed to Zoroaster (Patrizi 1593). It was, ironically,within Patrizi's own lifetime that serious textual and historicalarguments would finally be put forward to undermine the authority ofmany of these spurious works, and his own commitment to theauthenticity of the Hermetica can now be seen to have played amajor role in leading some of his critics and defenders to single outand publicize some of the historical and textual grounds for rejectingthem as spurious (Purnell 2002; Mulsow, ed. 2002).

One can easily see numerous sources in the history of science whichmay have influenced Patrizi's conception of the universe. The infinity of space and the existence of a vacuum were maintained bythe ancient atomists, and, as noted, the centrality of light as anintermediary level between the corporeal and incorporeal has solidroots in the Platonic tradition. In some ways Patrizi'scosmology may well reveal the influence of similar attacks on theAristotelian position put forward by his contemporary andcorrespondent, Bernardino Telesio of Cosenza. But it is equallyclear that his system represents his own unique blend of metaphysicsand physics. He does not embrace a Brunonian schema which couplesthe notion of an infinite universe with that of an infinite number ofworld-systems spread throughout it. Patrizi's universe isstill geocentric, though it places the Earth at the center of aninfinite expanse of light-filled space beyond the material realm. And although it rejects the Sun-centered universe, it does accept theEarth's diurnal rotation. An innovative production, itcould hardly help but influence later theories (Filippona La Bruna1965; Grant 1981; Petković 2002).

Another fundamental distinction Patrizi introduces is that betweenmathematical and physical space, a view which will have profound importfor the main figures identified with early modern thought, such asGalileo, Kepler, Newton, Descartes and Leibniz. InPatrizi's system, mathematical space is a pure reality,ontologically prior to all bodies; its primary unit is the geometricalpoint. Physical space, on the other hand, contains bodies, whichare not purely three-dimensional geometrical forms, but provide theadditional factor of resistance, a view which can be seen asanticipating Leibniz's addition of the notion of force toDescartes' conception of bodies as geometrically definable(Kristeller 1964, 123). Thus Patrizi can be counted among theRenaissance thinkers such as Jacopo Mazzoni, Galileo's mentor atthe University of Pisa, who posited mathematics as prior to physics andquite probably opened the doors to the mathematized physics which wouldcome to dominate early modern science (Purnell 1972; Wallace1998). Yet for Patrizi it is geometry which is the most valuabletool for the study of the physical world, not arithmetic. Perhapsoddly for someone with a background so deeply rooted in Platonism,Patrizi considered numbers to be merely products of thought, notconstitutive or revelatory of the ultimate character of the naturalworld. Perhaps it would take the development of analytic geometryto alter such a view in due course.

Although space was put forward as the main principle of thephysical, the three derivative principles also play important roles inPatrizi's model. The primary occupant of space is light;from it in turn heat is produced, which is construed as a formal andactive principle. It is probably no coincidence that heat hadbeen one of the three basic principles underlying his colleagueTelesio's system of nature, together with cold and matter,although Telesio's was a qualitative rather than quantifiableuniverse, as Patrizi's would be. The final constituent ofPatrizi's physics is humidity (fluor), which is passiveand material and somewhat akin to the elements associated withpre-Socratic thinkers such as Empedocles.

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